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what kind of asshat renames epona

I remember playing this game as a kid and i couldnt play it more than an hour or two before i needed a break. I never could explain it but the game just made me feel dreadful and scared and now that im older i understand all of the atmosphere, music is meant to do that Its like they took the well and shadow temple and made a whole game with the same goal of creep out the kiddies the goal

"I dont want use the mirrored map for the video" Bro, just mirror the maps in post LOL

You guys really hit home for me at around 1:24:30 with the comparison of shrines/koroks to the skultula quest and similar things in past games. Without going super far into it (I have a tendency to get carried away, I'm pretty passionate about this topic), I'll just say that Botw was at the time pretty much my all time favorite game. Tears was similarly blowing me away in the first week as I explored the extent of Ultrahand mechanics, but eventually I've almost completely flipped up on it. The more time I put into it, the more apparent and aggravating so many things in the design philosophy became to me. So with that out of the way, on that comparison. Something I'd like to add about it is this: shrines/koroks being your only reward is by far one of my biggest problems with the game, the repetition becomes mind numbing at a point. Like, at a certain point in the game, I want to "move on to more substantial content," like, side quests, in depth dungeons, stories, or whatever else. The problem is, other than a couple of side quests that I can count on pretty much one hand, there's just nothing worth while. And that's the problem for me. In an open world game where it is arguable more important to fit in more interesting content, there is instead what I perceive to be less than even the N64 games. Thus the comparison: shrines and koroks are mostly another version of the skultula quest, that have a much less unique reward than that quest, but also, and most importantly, instead of just being a side quest, THEY ARE THE MAIN CONTENT IN THE GAME. Obviously, you're meant to spend only as much time collecting these things as you want, then move onto the end of the game. But that just doesn't cut it for me. In games this big with worlds that are meant to immerse you, I want to spend 100s of hours getting distracted and messing around with optional stuff, furthering quest lines or discovering interesting details. So it's kind of a pickle when I've done like 30ish shrines, flown to light roots and am already at the point starting to feel the mindless grind. Talking about the side quests, most are just helping a guy fight a monster or solve a really simple problem, which honestly, even something that simple is fine, but I want to have some kind of substantial world building or story happen within it. The mayor thing? The master khoga thing? Pretty solid quests. But the amount here don't really cut it for me unfortunately. Which brings me to this last topic: games like Fallout, Skyrim, etc, I agree that I'm kind of tired of them at this point. I feel like Starfield kinda proved that they are a little bit past their time in a lot of ways: with that said, there are elements of these games that are great. The main thing: the side quests. The gameplay of these games is super basic, looting and killing guys, there are a lot of map markers which can definitely pollute the experience. But the side quests here are the star of the show. It doesn't matter if you just started playing the game, or you are 100 hours in, you ALWAYS have any number of side quests to tackle. And, while the gameplay and objectives of these are often basic, you meet memorable characters, witness interesting storylines, and in general feel like you're experiencing SOMETHING. Imagine that that multitude of narrative was injected into this game's world? Now, you aren't just rewarded with an extra inventory slot or heart container for each spot you go to on the map, you're rewarded with an interesting story sequence. Really deep into my playthrough, I was practically dying wanting something to do in the world. But like I said, the answer was only do the next shrine. But okay, say that they still want to stick to this "hands off" narrative approach, where there isn't really much in the way of defined side stories. Well, in that regard, gameplay intrigue and just pure content should be the focus. I think the mistake here was spending so much time refining Ultrahand, which, in fear of going on a tangent about it, I'll just say I think is mechanically amazing but gives you little to no incentive to engage with it meaningfully 99 percent of the time. And, while it's inherently cool just how well it works and what's possible with it, at the end of the day, at a point, I just wanted to get along to exploring and overcoming challenges within the world. So yeah, cool in concept, limitless possibilities, but by the end of my playthrough all I was thinking was that they spent way too much time refining what at the end of the day is a mechanic meant to be messed with and largely forgotten about on a standard playthrough. This lead to skimping on the reused map, the sky islands, and the depths in terms of the unique content that they all offer. And for here, this is the comparison I'll use. Elden Ring's lore largely takes a back seat like most of the souls games (it's there if you look for it), and it is 100 percent intended and normal for a person to go through the entire game with no idea what the heck is going on in the story. Side quests are really simple, just like Tears side quests, and cutscenes are few a far between. So then, how does this game exceed in my opinion just by focusing on pure gameplay in a similarly huge world? By shear uniqueness of content and inherent intrigue. Sure, a lot of people side the reused bosses in Elden Ring as one of its biggest flaws, but in my eyes comparing this game to Tears of the Kingdom is like night and day difference to me. Apart from instances of boss reuse in optional areas, you have literally dozens of unique bosses in this game, all with their own interesting designs, multiple moves to the point where you still see new moves on repeat playthroughs, multiple regions that have their own consistency with region specific enemy types, environmental hazards, and structures. On top of all this, instead of opening treasure chest after treasure chest of the same repeated items, throughout the world you'll find 100s of weapons with their own special gimmicks, designs and move sets, in addition to other specialized help items like ashes of war to alter weapons and spirit ash summons to assist you. And then you can also find upgrades for those things as well. I'd also like to add that discovering and fighting new enemies always has an inherent appeal to me (this applies in Tears as well, it's just... after like 10 hours exploring you've likely seen every possible enemy), and you are rewarded with each encounter by being able to level up and spend runes. In contrast, at a point in Tears I realized: hold on, why am I even bothering engaging enemies anymore? I had a stock pile of all the best weapon parts, so at that point, why engage with the repeated enemy camps? I could only logically break even at best or lost out at worse. Soooo that was one less thing that I wanted to do in a game where I was running completely thin on content. But continuing on, all of that stuff, and on top of that, I feel like the game also manages to make progression more satisfying while still maintaining an almost fully open environment. Despite all of the ways you can go and optional encounters you can do, there is still a significant path of progression in the game that will take you through giant enemy fortresses, required bosses, and puzzles on every play through, and I'm honestly tired of pretending that is a bad thing. One example here is the dectus medallion- a collectible that you need in order to pass through a gate that takes you to another part of the world. How you obtain this item is hinted at in the game, and there is another way that you can get through without that item by doing something else. This progression requirement doesn't feel like it is gating you off from experiencing the world, because even if you aren't able to find your way through immediately, there is so much to do in that section of the world anyway. And the game has a few different places like that, and what happens when you go into those places? You get the grand reveal of the world map pulling back, and you see the scale of the world and content increase right before you're eyes. Anyway, what I'm saying is, SOME gating of progression is nice. In this case, I was constantly trying to guess just how massive the scale was here, and it kept 1-upping my expectations. So, in conclusion, either of those two options are what I saw as some of the main things missing from this game. Either they expand the narrative with interesting side stories, or they just go all out on trying to make an abundance of pure, unique content. I have so many other problems with this game that I've come to realize, but the lack of either of those things is what absolutely killed it in the end for me. I could excuse the mundaneness of the shrines and the in my opinion really broken combat if either of those options was fleshed out. But as it stands, other games just do what Tears does for me but more. With that said, the open world format is absolutely a good direction for the series. It just comes down to them listening to fan feedback again. I mean, that's what made Botw such a huge hit to begin with for a lot of people, the fact that they responded directly to criticisms of Skyward Sword. So I was kind of hoping this game would fix common criticisms of Botw, but they instead seemingly doubled down on a lot of the problems. So yeah, I want the next game to have a more interesting form of progression and more substantial content, to some extent they got a way with it this time (though a lot of people are criticizing it now) but I think a third game in a row with the same shrine and korok seed type formula just isn't going to cut it even for people that don't really have a problem with this game as it stands. It'd just be too much repetition.

@CaptBurgerson You Really Got Your Point Across Nicely & As Always, You Did Great In This Video & The Last One!!! Not Only Did You Put A Lot Of Hard Work Into It, I Was Always On The Edge Of My Seat From Both Of Them...Not A Single Boring Apart Whatsoever!!! Please Keep It Up!!! 💪💪💪💪💪

"6th most watched" It should be your first most watched, not just because this seems to be a reeaaaally common misconception, and not because you dont have videos I like alot more, but purely because that must have been a MASSIVE pain in the arse to do.

Great follow up video! I’m still impressed by the work that must have gone into your first one. Also love that you linked that video! I was thinking about it right before you mentioned it, it’s really cool to see the attention to detail in many of the npc’s and world. Edit: Also I’ve got to know where Celessa is. I still haven’t found her in my playthrough and can’t find anything online about her. I thought it was cool that she respected Zelda from 100 years ago and wanted to see if she had anything to say now that Zelda had returned.

Well done, your passion for the game really shines through.

I think most of the ambiguous dialog may be due to the difference in nature between english and japanese. Because they have different words for I based on gender and relation to the person they are talking to and I assume that this extends to other similar words. These could have been translated to just I, you, he etc. So the logical next step to the project is to search the japanese version to answer the question once and for all. Also this project took dedication to complete.

i just left a comment on your other npcs remembering link video saying i liked it... and now i see another one!! love this and can't wait to watch! i loved your personal stories and the info on the last one, it was a great watch and i will definitely be subscribing

THIS IS GREAT i loved this video!! i'm glad it was long too, i enjoyed it hahahs

This video got me to finally buy Skyward Sword. Enjoying it a lot so far (& I'm watching the segments of the video as I progress!)

It's almost as if...... YOU SHOULD'VE DONE BETTER RESEARCH AND NOT MADE ASSUMPTIONS

I wonder how much dialogue refrencing BotW was written, but cut for time, breaking pace, not confusing new players and so on. Possibly a LOT, especially given the dev time. (Also I'm curious what is the opinion of the folks that dislike the amount of people that remember length on open air-style games. I feel like strict memory side would be more on the linear side, but maybe not)

I personally lean towards "100% BOTW is canon" (though I never did 100% myself). But I don't think that necessarily discredits a lot of your conclusions on why certain folks do or don't remember Link. Heck, I forgot a great deal of them too.

I also found Zyle on my original playthrough! I specifically remembered him from Breath of the Wild so I took notice when I spotted him. So, can confirm, he's indeed still around.

I know I've read a lot of people were disappointed that TotK didn't really have many save data check things, but gosh am I kind of glad about that as someone who 100%ed BotW on Wii U, I'd hate to miss out on references just for playing the wrong version of that game :c

A comment as another customer service worker (worked there for 4 years at a family restaurant so I’d like to think this might be more applicable as I’d imagine the inns and services that wouldn’t be as “industrial” or “modern corporate”) We had bands visiting and a multitude of locals and even a fair share of vacationers as we were near an airport so we got a wide variety of visitors at different intervals. Aside from my daily regulars that do the same thing every day without fail, I found it difficult to sometimes even remember faces of those who place orders. It takes something BIG for me to successfully remember them for the day and more than a few visits from that person to remember for longer. Sadly I couldn’t tell you years after that time the band names. Even with the context of hero of the land, it wasn’t brought up likely in person, so it likely became a conversation where they go “wow that’s crazy” and forget for the most part without aid in remembering (including how it’s been years).

Even if you *met* everyone, it doesn't mean they will all remember you. Most of these meetings were in passing, after all. 😊

You are so right!! It bothers me when people say they want everyone in the game to explicitly acknowledge them and what they did in BotW, but that would make no sense in the story. Why would everyone suddenly want to talk to Link about what he did about 5+ years ago? Everyone at the same time especially. The way they made the dialogue and the follow up with NPCs is way more natural and allows for less changes between players who have or do not have a BotW save file on the Switch.

The last video and this one were so awesome because it really was something that was a big deal and really struck a nerve for people when playing the game. Thanks for showing people the facts

It takes a strong person to admit mistakes, in the form of a 15 min video

Bolson’s dialogue feels like someone who you saw very recently, like you just saw him last week and not over a year ago. Which makes sense given link was in hateno village with Zelda as she worked on the school. That’s just my two cents though.

Not to thrust you headlong into another consuming project, but… What if you went region by region, specifically comparing the evidences between games of whether or not a BoTW quest was completed? This might give us some definitive answer as to how much completion is actually canon…

Funny enough, I never update my 100% save in order to be able to refresh all my materials and I'm pretty sure I've spoken to every single NPC on that file... except for one: Zyle. I encountered him traveling the area near eastern Hebra on horseback and he didn't have his name over his head, meaning I hadn't spoken to him. This guy's strategy to find customers must be really bad if he happens to be the only one both of us missed. 🤣 I lean mostly in the camp that the intention is for whatever the player did in Breath of the Wild to be canon to Tears of the Kingdom, as it makes perfect sense for the sequel to a game where the only mandatory quest is the final boss. There are clear references to things like the Vah Ruta quest that can't really be argued that it's anything else, so we can probably say the Divine Beast quests are at least canon, but I think the rest is intentionally ambiguous so it can make sense based on your experience with Breath of the Wild. Even with Tarrey Town, if the player didn't do that quest in Breath of the Wild, it could technically be argued that the town would now have a completely different origin story that takes place after Ganon's defeat. It's not like Link was the one to convince Hudson to build it; he was gonna do it anyway, and Link just happened to be available to help at that time. Maybe this is a big source of the claim that the game feels disconnected from Breath of the Wild, because the game accounting for whatever playthrough someone had means it won't reflect someone's individual playthrough quite as well. I'm ok with it though cause like you said, not everyone is a completionist. The online Zelda community only reflects a small portion of the fanbase, and I think a lot of people fail to realize that.

Nothing can justify Hetsu doesn’t recognize Link. We brought him his fcking korok seeds

Another point in favor of the 100% botw run being cannon to totk is Link having all heart containers is the intro sequence, meaning he probably did all botw shrines. He also has the master sword, which is also optional and is skipped in any% runs of botw

It's probably worth noting that resources like the Zelda Wiki are still a work in progress. So many character pages don't have much info on character locations and roles in Tears of the Kingdom yet. As a result, if you used them to check on seemingly missing characters, you may have found pages that didn't list them in TotK or didn't add any info yet. As for what's canon... honestly that should probably be a video in its own right. Based on dialogue I'd say that the Divine Beasts, getting the Master Sword and building Tarrey Town were obviously canon, and you could make a good argument for the shrines and Korok seeds, but beyond that it's vague. Thanks for the follow up video!

Apparently, Manny has a line of dialogue that basically says he hopes Link keeps the whole 'naive newcomer act' to a minimum, implying that Manny recognizes Link and that he's deliberately hiding his identity from the people of Hateno and possibly most of Hyrule.

And about those stables, I found out the hard way that the Master Mode data doesn’t carry over because I had more horses in that run and none of them showed up and that would probably also cause other issues both with game data tracking and what sort of interactions they got with the stables.

This addendum is fantastic and reminds me of the painstaking time I put into trying to get the name of every Gerudo, Zora, Rito, non-monk Sheikah, and Goron for a name randomizer project I’ve been doing on and off and the way that there is always someone somehow that slips through your attention cannot be overstated. Glad you were able to find them and throw them into the data set even if the changes were statistically insignificant. It’s just that nagging idea that you don’t have everything. I’m in favor of ambiguity meaning the type of run you have can go any way. I also have completionist tendencies (but I draw the line at Koroks, when the inventory’s maxed out I need nothing else) so it’s easy for me to see most of the things I’ve done probably canonically happened but for simplicity I can reasonably assume “all beasts and DLC and MOST side quests, Tarrey Town is required” is the easiest “canon” interpretation that steps on the least amount of toes. But ultimately it doesn’t matter. Glad to see the loose ends tied up.

I personally think the game is constructed in a way that any amount of completion for the previous game beyond the main quests can be interpreted as canon or non-canon depending on the player. The dialogue for the Gerudo that you point out referencing the previous side quest with her is actually ambiguous enough that it doesn't necessarily imply the traveler she refers to is Link, someone else could have come along and helped her out if he hadn't. The Korok puzzles with boulders also don't necessarily imply Link's involvement as many of the puzzles before involved large rock slabs that the Koroks must have placed themselves, as there was no logical reason for them to have appeared there naturally before the Korok chose to hide there. Tarrey Town is the only definite evidence of side-quest completion I can recall from the game, but it could be argued that Link may have helped with its construction after defeating Ganon since he would still be travelling to all of the towns where he recruited the villagers during his time with Zelda.

Addendum to the Addendum: all the characters that claim to know Link are actually just REALLY nice and didn't want to make him think they didn't know him like "ohhh heyyyy youuu, it's you!" 🤭 Pretty crazy stuff I know

I think Tarry Town is a pretty good proof that a BOTW completionist run is canon

So many NPC's forgot Link...that when I got to Rito and saw Tulin's reaction to Link...it hit me like a Ton of Bricks!

Though the idea of having BotW save data carry over is cool, I played BotW on a friend's WiiU and then obviously TotK on a Switch I owned. Should I be robbed of those character interactions because my playthrough isn't linked? I understand Nintendo probably did it not to alienate newcomers but, in a self-proclaimed sequel, that seems a little strange.

My opinion for what is canon in BOTW is Link is doing a minimalist run. But after the ending zelda is rescued, Zelda (with Link in tow) roams around helping people in which she does a completionist run. Which is why the one who purchase the house in Hateno is Zelda not Link.

I think it makes total sense that anything in the game, whether you experienced it or not, is canon. It seems like the logical alternative would end up following the lines of: if you've never played Ocarina of Time, you could just say "well none of that is canon because I never experienced it." That would also make DLC canon.

Everyone debating this, and here I was suffering nobody remembered me because my BotW save file was in my friend's profile because i borrowed his digital copy :'c Since things I did in BotW didn't reach my TotK files, i don't think a 100% run has to be canon, many NPCs were made ambiguous for the same reason... so canon events being ambiguous too except for the main quests like Tarrey Town (love you Hudson, you remembered me c': ) makes a lot of sense to me. ... I want my horses back :c

I mean obviously bc our horses transfer over i didn't think it went for NPCs tooi

Iiiinbnteresting about previous save data from botw I never thought of that!!

Man you just keep complaining about things that dont matter in any way shape or form whatsoever i just don't get it

i really wanted to do it without the map, having found the terminal locations being revealed outright to be far too easy the first time. and try as i might, i couldn't find that last terminal. so i had to look for it on the map. so there may be weight to the idea that its not as well designed as it could be, relying so much on yunobo and the minecarts.

to this day, its a mystery why the developers let the Lament get interrupted by the enemy theme. its still a huge oversight. while it IS kinda nitpicky when you think about how many times this part of the game have been brought up since 2006, its not that bad if you just ignore it. though its a shame to have such a oversight ruin such a beautiful song and a dire part of the game.

First a general note that while this is technically comparable to the Boss Keys series, it’s more expansive because it covers the mid-dungeon story beats and goes into more extra details that don’t fit what Boss Keys was about. But there is a moment in the Lakebed Temple section that feels straight out of that series, which refers to the more challenge-based linear/semi-linear dungeons as “gauntlets” and interwoven mazes with a lot of key juggling as “puzzle boxes”. 45:09 how do you miss the sumo ring in the middle? I guess because you don’t use any of the rings in the dungeon for that purpose, it can slip by?

Since I didn't catch this whole stream live and came in late, I just finished watching what I missed, and I about jumped out of my seat when I heard you say my name when I joined lmao. Working at home by myself I don't expect to hear someone else saying my name lol

I had to wait 4 months to be mentally ready for this. this video is the EXACT stuff that my mind loves thinking about waaaay to much, especially about these games

I've been going through and watching/listening to all of your dungeon design videos across the Zelda games as I work. The quality of these continue to get better and better, thank you for your hard work!

i get that they removed many things from botw, but some closure would have been nice.

I enjoyed the video, you have a very good voice for this 🐦